House Project: Dining Room

Part of our Christmas present to ourselves this year was a new dining room. When we moved in, the dining room was painted a really dark red color that neither of us was fond of, and had a light fixture that we both hated.

We knew the color would be a nightmare to change, but we wanted to completely transform this room. After all, it's been sitting empty for over a year. Naturally, we started with primer...two coats of it. Turns out red is very hard to cover.

Then came our new light fixture. So much better than what was there before.

 We chose a nice clean blue to lighten up the room.

Then came a new rug, new furniture, and new art for the wall. We were so excited to get it all put together, and were very happy with the choices we made. It looks like a real adult dining room now instead of just empty space. For a while, I kept turning on the light and just looking at it all, not quite believing it was in my house. I've gotten used to it now, and really love it. It makes me look forward to working on other rooms of the house. 

House Project: New Television

Part of our Christmas present to ourselves this year was a new flat screen television, blu ray player, and a shelf to hold the electronics. It was a bit of an adventure getting it mounted over the fireplace, but I think the finished product turned out really well.

Pinterest Project: Christmas Ornaments

For any of you who are familiar with Pinterest, you understand the wealth of ideas that can be found there. Naturally at this time of year, a lot of the ideas have centered around holiday crafts and decor. I have pinned numerous ideas to try in the future, but there were a couple for ornaments that I wanted to try this year.

The first involved rolling strips of scrapbook paper around a pencil, then putting them inside a glass ball ornament (or plastic if you prefer). I added a little personalization and made one for Nana, one for Papa, and one for Grandpa.

The second was the traditional salt dough hand print. I did one with Noah's hand actually pressed into the dough, and the other with it just pressed onto the baked dough. Once they were painted, the hand prints stood out a lot more.

These were both so simple, I feel that we will definitely be repeating them in the future.

Big Boots to Fill

The little man found his Daddy's boots by the bookshelf and decided to climb right into them. Standing there is pretty much all he can do in them. They are too heavy for much more than that. He's well on his way, but those are some big boots to fill. He has quite a way to go.

Truly Our Son

Not that we ever questioned it, but we saw further proof today that Noah is truly our son. During a trip out with Daddy, they accidentally found their way through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru and brought home peppermint chocolate chip milkshakes. Just like his mommy and daddy, Noah seemed to love it once he got a taste of it. He was not too happy when I took the cup away from him.

A Word From Noah

fkiirwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww6fs3wzu n bbffffdxxddddfgvbm jkl

nzbczdtuokb  nn cgc    f,u i ok[p
'
]'ijyer  nb4 4  on br   m, m  b b

Roughly translated, this means "Thanks for reading our blog! Hope you have a Merry Christmas!"
We'll keep working on his typing skills.

Hide and Peek

We have seen Noah tuck behind the banister or a column and peek out at us, as if he's playing peek-a-boo. Recently he took it a step further. He was actually trying to play hide and seek. He still needs a little practice. He would hide behind the blinds, stay there for a minute, then peek out to see if anyone was looking. As you can see, his hiding still needs a little work. And he doesn't really stay there and wait for someone to come seek him. So I think we'll call this little game Hide and Peek.

Pinterest Project: Thumbtack Vase Filler

Hello, my name is Miranda, and I'm addicted to Pinterest. There, I said it. I have lots of things pinned that I want to try and just haven't gotten to them yet. Here's one that I jumped on right away.

I found a pin from a blog called Landee See, Landee Do that had instructions for making thumbtack vase fillers. It's such a simple idea, but I never would have thought of it myself. You just take a styrofoam ball, cover it with thumbtacks, and add a few coats of spray paint. Mine are actually sitting nicely atop a cake plate in our new hutch rather than filling a vase, but I was quite pleased with them. This was one easy project that I will definitely be repeating in the future.

Blowing Buttons

It's official. Noah and Papa have invented a new game. The concept is simple. Noah sits on Papa, places (shoves)  a button gently (not gently) in his mouth, and Papa blows it out while Noah laughs. It's a simple game, but oh so entertaining.

Rainy Day Play

Noah loves to be outside, so rainy days are especially disappointing for him. Yesterday was one of those days. We had been cooped up for far too long and he just kept going over and pointing to the door. I gave in, and we went outside.

I gave him a piece of chalk to draw with, since it looks better on the wet asphalt. He enjoyed that for a few minutes...until he found a puddle.

 

Noah also loves water, so there's nothing more tempting than a nice puddle. He dipped his chalk in it. He swished his hand around in it. I could see he wanted to dive right in. I wanted to pull him away. He was wearing brand new pants, he looked adorable, I didn't want him all wet and muddy. But, he had been a trooper all day, running errands with me and putting up with being stuck inside. So I gave in and let him have the puddle.

 

 He was so happy to splash in this puddle and every other one he could find. And, if you think about it, the best way to play in a puddle really is just to sit right down in it. He ended up splashing mud up on his clothes, wiping it on his face, and covering his chalk. But he really could not have cared less. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. When he was good and dirty, we made our way back inside and straight to the bathtub. I guess rainy days aren't all bad.

 

Sorting 101

I decided a couple of months ago that Noah was probably bored at home. He plays with the same toys and the same mom every day. That can get old after a while. So I perused the Internet trying to find ideas for activities for him. One that I found was a sorting box.

The idea is simple. Get a divided box and some brightly colored objects and help your child learn the fine art of sorting. I stuck with primary colors so as to not make things too difficult. But apparently, Noah is still a bit young for this activity. His goal is to collect all of one particular item (buttons, for example) and manage to hold them all in his tiny hand.

As far as putting things in the box, he gets two or three things in there and wants to immediately dump them out again. We'll keep trying, but I guess sorting may not actually happen for a couple more months.

Something Like Samba

We have discovered that Noah may end up being quite the dancer. He really loves the movie Rio, primarily because of the music and bright colors. And he loves to dance to the music. Even if the movie is not on and you ask him if he wants to watch the birds, he starts flapping his arms around and heads toward the living room. And he does this every day. Samba is it not, but give it time.

Happy Halloween!

Last year, Noah was almost two months old for his first Halloween. We didn't bother with a costume because we weren't taking him out at all. He just hung out with us at the house while we gave out candy. This year, I wanted him in a costume and wanted to take him out.

His Nana bought his dragon costume for his birthday. His Mommy did not take into consideration how much he would grow over two months before he wore it. So you'll notice the sleeves are a little short. But that didn't seem to bother him. We jumped in the car and headed over to see our friends the Howells, who live a couple streets over, and their sweet little flower, Rebekah.

We plopped them down on the floor to snap a few pictures and to my surprise, they were content to just sit there and hang out. Rebekah was fascinated by the shiny wings on Noah's costume. We took our candy from them and headed back home to go to a couple of the houses on our street. Noah didn't really show much interest and let's be honest, he's still too young to understand what's happening anyway. As soon as you put him down, he wanted to wander off. So instead of visiting houses to collect candy, we let  him play for a little while in the cul-de-sac and then headed inside to give out candy. Next year, when he can actually say "Trick-or-treat" and understands a little more of what's going on, we'll try this whole Halloween thing again.

A Painted Pumpkin

This year I wanted Noah to be able to do something with a pumpkin. He's too small to handle a knife, so it seemed paint was the next best option. We sat him down, showed him the paint brushes, and let him go.

He had no interest in trying to handle the paint brush and just shoved his hands right into the paint. He didn't seem to have any particular design in mind for the pumpkin. He went for more of a Jackson Pollock kind of look. He played in the paint for a while until his pumpkin took on a nice gray color. Then he got frustrated with the paint being on his hands. It was time to call it a night. The pumpkin was not exactly what you'd call beautiful, but Noah did it himself. Mission accomplished.

Spirit Week

Last week, Noah's daycare had spirit week. He only had to go for two days, but we dressed accordingly. Tuesday was crazy day, for wearing mismatched clothes. Wednesday was black and orange day. Nana bought his spooky shirt and had it mailed overnight so he could wear it. He was definitely showing his spirit. Well, maybe it was more my spirit than his, but spirit nonetheless.

At the Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we took Noah to a local pumpkin patch. The place was actually more fun than we expected. They had an area with baby goats, a couple of smelly pigs, a turkey, and some chickens. You were not allowed to feed or pet the animals because they would bite, but it was still cute. They had face painting for the kiddos, ice cream, boiled peanuts, and hot dogs. Then you got to jump on a hay ride to head out to pick out your pumpkin. They had an area where you could pick out tiny pumpkins, which I've never seen before, then an area with the larger ones.

It was hard to get a good picture of Noah looking at the camera. There was just too much going on and too many distractions. He seemed to enjoy picking his way through the pumpkins, occasionally trying to push one over. I thought he might try to pick them up, but he was content to leave them on the ground and just touch them all. When we had seen all the pumpkins there were to see, we hopped back on the hay ride to head back to the car. It was a fun first trip to the pumpkin patch for our little family.

Reading to Daddy

One of my favorite things that we have seen Noah do so far is read. He will grab a book off his shelf, usually a Little Quack book, sit down and turn the pages, pointing things out and making sounds as he goes. We've seen him do this several times, but I finally got it on video one night when he decided to read to Taylor. I apologize for the video being dark.

Professor Larkin

Nana has a couple of pairs of reading glasses laying around her house and thought it would be cute to see what they would look like on Noah. Normally, he can't stand to have anything on his face or head and pull things off as soon as you put them on him. But for some reason, he thought this was really funny. He looked so adorable in them. Our little professor all ready to teach his first class.

Baby in a Box

While at my parents' house, we found the box from Noah's new car seat. Since kids always seem to love boxes, we pulled it out to see what Noah would do with it. At first, he didn't seem to have much interest in it. So I got in the box to show him how much fun it could be.

He still wasn't convinced of the fun that could be had inside the box. So we threw his ball into the box. That was the push he needed. He went right in after it.

If only children came in boxes like this with directions included.

Critters at the Creek

On one of the nicer afternoons we've had recently, we took another stroll with Noah down to the creek. This time, Taylor caught a crawfish for Noah to investigate and a frog he could touch.

 

Noah's favorite part of the outing was splashing in the water and throwing rocks. He doesn't mind getting dirty and just sat himself right down in the dirt to play. He was also quite alright squating right down in the water to splash around. Turns out dirty hands and a wet back side make our little boy quite happy.

What a Scream

Noah got a little hyper one night before bed and decided to throw his animals around and scream a bit. It was quite entertaining to watch.

Playdate

While Noah was visiting my parents one weekend recently, he had his first play date with a new friend.

This is Grant, and he lives next door to my parents. He is about six months older than Noah but since he's a little short and Noah's a little tall, they look to be about the same age. They had fun playing with the wagon, lifting up the seats and putting them back down. Grant ran around the yard wanting Noah to follow. Noah stood there staring, wanting to follow but not quite able to run just yet. Soon, Grant, very soon. They had a great time and played really well together. Hopefully they can continue to be friends and play together as they get older.

Think Outside the Box

At only a year old, Noah is already thinking outside the box. He got a shape sorter for his birthday. He will sit and try for a few minutes to get the shapes inside through the holes in the top. You know, the way you're supposed to. When he finds one he can't quite get in the correct hole, he just takes the top off. Then he tosses the piece inside, giggles, and puts the top back on. That's my good little problem solver.

A Fuzzy Friend

Taylor has a big black stuffed gorilla that he's had since he was a baby. It's been a lot of places with him, including college and a road trip out to the west coast and back. It's been a good friend for many years. So for Noah's first birthday, his Uncle Zach, who also went on that road trip, gave him this guy. Maybe this will become a tradition. All new Larkin men have to have a giant pet gorilla. Thanks Uncle Zach, for this new fuzzy friend.

The Difference a Year Makes

We took a picture of my cousin's son Landyn holding Noah when he was about five weeks old. Then took another picture of them at Noah's birthday party almost a year later. It's amazing to see the difference a year makes. 

Noah's 1st Birthday Party

Noah's 1st birthday party was a hit. We had lots of family and friends that were able to be here to celebrate with us, and Noah got to play with cousins he doesn't see very often. His cake was adorable, as were the monkey suckers we had for people to take home (thanks to my Mom for both of those).  Noah got some new clothes and lots of new toys to play with. He was worn out by the end, but I think he had a good time.

Pop-up Playtime

I pulled out this pop-up tent today for Noah to play with. I figured something new might keep him entertained for a while. He had no interest in it at all....until I crawled inside. Crawling inside was tricky. The tent is very small and I am very big. But shortly after that, Noah crawled himself through the tunnel into the tent with me. Then he crawled back out and came back with a book. After crawling through the flaps in the openings a few times and even crashing the tent over, he seemed to like it a little more. It may not become a favorite toy, but perhaps it will provide the occasional escape from the ordinary.

House Project: Photo Wall

We are finally starting to put things on the wall in our house and decided it would be nice to have photos on the wall going up the stairs. I bought frames, traced them out on paper, and used that to plan out where they would go on the wall. Then we just had to choose pictures to go in them, get them printed, and voila. New photo wall complete.

A New Tradition

Taylor decided this morning that he should start a new tradition:  Daddy and Noah breakfast on Noah's birthday. So they got dressed and headed for IHOP. Noah enjoyed a free birthday breakfast and they got to spend some time together. I think I like this new tradition.